this year's model

Never let it be said that Cassidy is lacking in sartorial flair. He's able to pull off combinations of colors and patterns far too bold and daring for most youngsters, usually tastefully accented with a dressy bib for mopping up drool. He's been known to add a hat to his wardrobe for a jaunty, European look, or to accessorize with a panda to show his more sensitive side.

run run run

On Sunday we took the intrepid explorer over the Golden Gate Bridge to spend the morning with Freya, DD and Mike at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Since it's in Marin County, Cassidy thought he would dress the part.

Freya and Cassidy had a great time playing with the plastic fish in the stream, dressing up like insects, bouncing in the play area, racing through the willow maze, and doing a little art. Cassidy was particularly excited to race around from place to place; to be honest, he probably would've been excited in an empty lot as long as there was room to run around. By the time we were ready to head home, he was pretty wiped out, and fell asleep mid-snack.

In other news, he's 21 months old today. He's rapidly moving into toddlerhood; getting a little taller and saying a few more things that might be words. I'm pretty sure I've heard 'please', 'up' and 'help' in the last few days. 'Hi' and 'byebye' are staples, as are many variations on 'no.'

the chase is better than the catch

Cassidy has two new favorite things to do these days:
1. Carry his basketball around
2. Chase someone around the circle formed by our living room, dining room and kitchen. If we start this game, he'll want to play for as long as you'll let him. If you sit down because you're feeling light-headed and need to put your head between your knees since you've been running in a tight circle for 15 minutes, he demonstrates his toddlerness by pushing you until you start running again. He'll be an excellent cross country coach some day.

(3 is throw his toys over the baby gate and down the stairs. Not pictured.)

He's even happier if he can find a way to combine the two, which leads to some incredibly cute pictures, as you can see here.

think for yourself

Sometimes it's hard to read to Cassidy without editorializing. Holly makes fun of me when we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I point out that, in fact, butterflies hatch from chrysalises and moths hatch from cocoons, and in Bicycle For Sale Oswald the Octopus repairs his bike tires by painting them and puts olive oil on the chain, which always leads into a digression about proper bike maintenance.

The Cat in the Hat has been hard to read since DD pointed out that the message is basically "let strangers in when you're home alone, and never tell your parents if they do anything."

Lately, we've been reading Where The Wild Things Are quite a bit, but the message here seems to be that if you're mean to people who are nice to you, you'll get rewarded.

Maybe I'm making too much of all this, and those courses in literary criticism are getting in the way. Dinosaur ABC's has been fine, and I haven't had to point out any glaring inaccuracies, like the fact that Dimetrodon is not actually a dinosaur. (this has been known to derail How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?) I also haven't had any problem with Richard Scarry, except for the fact that half the objects in the pictures are completely archaic (old telephones, radios and record players, for example) and I approve of Punk Farm's message that it's OK to stay up late playing rock music.

animal boy

On Saturday we took Cassidy on his first trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Carrie went along with us. Cassidy had a great time seeing all the animals and racing around. We tried to help him relate the real animals to the ones in his books, but he wondered whether the gorilla would let all the other animals out.

He also particularly liked getting to pet and brush the goats. If we could, we'd get some for our back yard, but I think it's a little small. Maybe if we ever move out of the city.

He showed Carrie how good he was at scaring her, and got her to play hide-and-seek with him for a while too! All in all, a successful outing for our intrepid explorer.

return of the son of shut up and post some baby pictures

So it's been a while since we've uploaded any pictures of Cassidy. Hopefully you've all managed to carry on.

He turned 20 months old last Friday. He's starting to enter that two-year-old stage; while he doesn't have a lot of words yet, "no" is most definitely a part of his vocabulary, even when he might mean yes. He's also starting to test his limits, which is a normal part of getting older, but definitely frustrating for us when he tosses his food on the floor or throws a fit when we won't read a book for the fourteenth straight time.

Despite that, he's a little sweetie, as you can see here. He got to go over to Freya's to swim in her pool, although he preferred to stand outside and splash. He's also rocking his pink Chuck Taylors in the last picture; always the fashion plate!

down to there hair

So we finally gave Cassidy a haircut yesterday; it was getting a little out of control. It's still not exactly a crew cut (his curls are still there!) but it's out of his eyes now, and he doesn't have as much of the feral child look. We'll see if people continue to assume he's a girl (even when he's all in blue with a dinosaur shirt!) because he's so beautiful.

We spent some time yesterday blowing bubbles, as you can see. He really enjoyed it. He's also got a new Dr. Seuss-themed bib, which he's more ambivalent about.